Posted: October 1st, 2013

Social, cultural, or environmental process has influences of a U.S. metropolitan area

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Please specify City of you Choice by October 4

The research proposal (one page or less, double spaced, 12 point font, one-inch margins) should identify the city or metropolitan area you plan to investigate; a social, cultural, or environmental process you plan to consider in connection with that city or metropolitan area; and a brief account of why you believe that particular social, cultural, or environmental process has influenced the city or metropolitan area you have chosen to examine.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
Due November 5, 2013

The research assignment is to investigate and critically analyze a social, cultural, or environmental process that has influenced the development of an existing city or metropolitan area of your choice in the United States. You may undertake research on urban politics, urban planning, suburbanization, immigration, globalization, gentrification, crime, economic development, tourism, entertainment, pollution, land loss, disasters and disaster planning, climate change, desertification, or any other social, cultural, or environmental development that you can effectively argue has in some way shaped the city or metropolitan area you have chosen to examine.

Specific Instructions

For the research assignment, you should first provide a detailed description of the city or metropolitan area you have chosen to investigate. At a minimum, your description should include basic demographic and economic information about the city or metropolitan area along with an account of how the city or metropolitan area has changed with respect to the types of information you provide over a period of time you clearly define. The time frame you employ in your analysis should be largely determined by the social, cultural, or environmental process you have chosen to examine, but it should end with the present period (2010 or later). Next, identify the social, cultural, or environmental process you have chosen to consider. Be sure to clearly explain what it is, why you believe it is important, how you have measured it, and in what specific way or ways it has influenced the city or metropolitan area you have chosen to investigate. Finally, speculate on future developments. Will the influence of the social, cultural, or environmental process on the city or metropolitan area become more pronounced, stay the same, or lessen over time? Regardless of your answer, be sure to provide a clear explanation of why you think it will change in the way you specify.

Research papers should be about five pages in length (double spaced, 12 point font, one-inch margins). Your grade will depend on how well you back up your arguments with theories and facts taken from the assigned readings or your own research.

Be sure to appropriately cite your sources which may include books, journal articles, newspapers, various Internet sources, magazines, and the U.S. Census Bureau, among other sources of information.